Beware: the red triangle!
Fortunately it turned out to be a split hose – an easy and inexpensive fix
DRIVING DOWN the A1, my son say’s “what’s that strange flapping sound?” I have to admit I hadn’t heard it, then the dash message display flashes up Restricted Performance and the dreaded red warning triangle came on. I wasn’t driving at the time, so my first thought was, well I’m not to blame; my wife who is driving asks what do the warnings mean – and should she stop?
There is a problem with the Freelander but we are still cruising along nicely at motorway speed. Nothing seems different, no horrible noises and there is no engine management light on, so I tell her to just keep driving. Now I’ve had a Restricted Performance or limp mode as some call it before, apart from restricting you from revving the engine much over 2500rpm
the Freelander drives normally. In fact it cruises happily at 70 but struggles a bit setting off and on hills, but if you short shift in gears you can manage a reasonable speed. Not sure if you would manage as well in an auto.
The last time it happened it was the EGR valve that had stuck, but I drove back down from Scotland with the restricted performance and the red warning triangle illuminated.
First opportunity we pulled over and stopped. Ignition turned off, we wait a few minutes for the car to close down then start it up again. Restricted Performance and the red warning triangle had both gone off. So we set off then a few miles on that flapping sound and the warnings reappear, so there must be a problem and not just a sensor glitch.
Back at home it was bonnet up and a look around the engine bay; the flappy sound made me think it could be a split turbo hose but there hadn’t been any black smoke when accelerating. With little visible in the engine bay of a Freelander especially – at the front where the turbo pipes are – I couldn’t see anything amiss.
Next morning ii was off to see Patrick at Maddison 4x4. After moving a couple of hoses Patrick quickly spotted the problem. Just as he’d thought, there was a large split in the hose between the intercooler and the throttle body. An easy fix and, luckily, an inexpensive one.
The replacement part LR066429 is the complete hose section from the intercooler to the throttle body and is made up of three sections: a short section of rubber hose, a shaped section of hard plastic tubing and a longer section of rubber hose that comes with pre-fixed hose clamps. You only need replace the small top section of the hose, so rather than replacing the complete hose you could just take the short section off and fit that. But it’s easier fitted if you just take the long section of the hose off and replace the short hose still attached to the shaped section of hard plastic tubing. The long section of hose once removed ends up in the ‘might-need parts bin’ along with several other sections of the hose from previous jobs.
It takes more time removing the Freelander’s under-engine guard to get up between the intercooler and the engine to release the lower hose clip than changing the hose itself, a relatively quick and easy job. Once replaced, the Freelander was plugged into the diagnostic equipment and the faults cleared
Thankfully it’s now back in full working order and returning 40 mpg on mixed road driving. I still think the Freelander 2 was one of the best models Land Rover ever made in every respect, both in its size and shape, and most importantly reliability. Shame they dropped the Freelander models from the marque, leaving us with just Discovery and Range Rover. (And Defender! –Ed.)